Kuwait’s Top Book Censor Discusses Her Job

Wondering what it’s like to decide what knowledge is outlawed? The head of book censorship at Kuwait’s Ministry of Information explains how one goes about becoming a censor and defends the practice as a skilled art. The Kuwait Times writes:

The censors who are responsible for censoring books and other publications do an interesting job, which becomes harder during some periods of the year, yet it seems they enjoy it. In Kuwait, freedoms are respected yet within certain limits.

Dalal Al-Mutairi, head of the Foreign Books Department at the Ministry of Information [says]: “Many people consider the censor to be a fanatic and uneducated person, but this isn’t true. We are the most literate people as we have read much, almost every day. We read books for children, religious books, political, philosophical, scientific ones and many others.”

Working as a censor is interesting. “I like this work. It gives us experience, information and we always learn something new. It takes about a year or a year and a half to become a censor, as the person is first employed as a censor assistant.”

“We are the most literate people as we have read much, almost every day. We read books for children, religious books, political, philosophical, scientific ones and many others.”

Just like priests in the Middle Ages, they consume all the information available and decide for the wider populace what is ‘appropriate’ for them to see.

Anarchy Pony

Wow, the top book censor is a woman? That kind of blows my mind…

Jin The Ninja

in my albeit limited life experience, the more co opted by oppressive forces a sub-altern is, the more virulently they try to oppress others. but i think it is ironic, that a woman has total access to ‘subversive’ materials, and seemed from my reading of the article to value reading them.

Liam_McGonagle

Good point. Also, no one cares what women think anyhow, so having one of them pour through this stuff couldn’t do any harm.